Lionel Messi starts the UCL goal fest with a hattrick and sets a new record

Messi scored the first goal of this season’s UCL and went on to score a hat-trick. He has now 8 UCL hat-tricks, one more than his rival Ronaldo.

Lionel Messi broke the tie with Cristiano Ronaldo for the most number of UCL hat-tricks. His eighth Champions League hat-tricks made him the most prolific hat-trick scorer in the competition’s history, earning him more high praise from Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde.

The forward opened the scoring with a free-kick goal in the 32nd minute. If you missed that then hurry up, don’t waste any time and watch that free-kick now. It can’t be described in words. It was marvelous. Dembele added the second for Barcelona. Messi then scored his second goal and Barcelona’s third with 13 minutes to go. He then capped his display with a third strike three minutes from time.

Messi has begun the 2018-19 season in superb form. He has scored seven goals and assisted a further three strikes in six matches for Barcelona so far. He has now 48 hat-tricks in his remarkable career. He has now also netted more Champions League goals than PSV, scoring 103 to their 102.

Valverde lavished praise on the 31-year-old. “Messi is normal because we always see it. ” Valverde said to the Champions League TV channel. “In any of us it would be abnormal, but he does extraordinary things and makes them routine.” he further added.